New Delhi: Under the Standup India scheme, a loan amount of Rs 24,985.27 crore has been sanctioned so far.

As per information shared by the Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs Anurag Singh Thakur in Rajya Sabha on Tuesday, under the Standup India scheme 1,11,619 loan applications involving Rs 24,985.27 crore have been sanctioned as of March 2, 2021.

The Stand-Up India Scheme was launched in April 2016 to facilitate loans from Scheduled Commercial Banks of value between Rs. 10 lakh and Rs.1 Crore to at least one SC/ST and one-woman borrower per bank branch for setting up a greenfield enterprise in manufacturing, services or trading sector.

Pursuant to the announcement made in the Budget speech this year by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, the margin money requirement for loans under this scheme has been reduced from up to 25 per cent to up to 15 per cent and activities allied to agriculture were included in the scheme, the Minister said.

Anurag Thakur further informed the upper house of the parliament that the Government has taken steps towards effective implementation of the Scheme including provision for submission for online applications by potential borrowers through an online portal, handholding support, intensive publicity campaign, simplified loan application form, Credit Guarantee Scheme, campaign for target group through dedicated weekly programmes etc.